Go to page

Registered

Well it’s a nice Bank Holiday Weekend and I fancy a road trip in my EV, I have charged it overnight to 100% and checked the tyre pressures, so already for the off.

Wait a minute; you can’t do that under Lockdown Rules? I hear you say.

Well what do the Lockdown Rules say?

The strap line is: “STAY AT HOME - PROTECT THE NHS AND SAVE LIVES”

Shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, as infrequently as possible.

One form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk or cycle – alone or with members of your household.

Any medical need, including donate blood, avoid the risk of harm, provide care or help for a vulnerable person.

Travelling for work purposes, but only when you cannot work for home.

I have taken this directly from the leaflet that dropped through the letterbox this week accompanied by the letter from “Boris” imploring me to stay at home. At this point I would like to go on record to give Boris my best wishes, wishing him a speedy and timely recovery, it will be a great relief to us all to have Boris back with is hand on the tiller, steering us through this storm.

Right, I have a nice clean cardboard box and into this box I am placing some provisions or essentials to be exact. A couple of tins of baked beans, rice pudding, some pasta, a Devon suede. Oh and get rid of the rhubarb that my neighbour gave me from his allotment, a couple of bog rolls. The essential 2 packs of Ibuprofen a pack of Co-codamol and a jar of Vicks chest rub.

Carefully put the box securely in the back of the car and ready to set off. The GOM is showing 245 miles, this warm weather is making a range difference now, isn’t it.

I am off to visit my elderly vulnerable parents who are self-isolating and live 105 miles away so that is a 210 mile round trip so I will be able to do that easily if I keep the speed down and chill out. Hopefully without the need to visit a charger and avoid the risk of contracting COVID19 from those pesky charging leads.

If I have the misfortune on my travels, to be pulled over by the police and questioned with regard to the purpose of my journey then I will show them the box of essentials and suitably desperate looking mug shots of my demanding parents that would warm the coldest heart. On arrival, I won’t be able to go in of course as distancing rules must be applied at all times. Perhaps I will be able to put my hand on the outside of the closed window and their hand on the inside of the window like one of those excruciating emotional scenes from prisoner cell block H.

Wait a minute! I hear you say, you can’t do this it’s not in the rules, what would happen if we all decided to go on a road trip willy nilly? then anarchy and chaos would ensue.

I would say to you that rules are there to be stretched, compressed and probed to extend the boundaries to the very limits of outer space. This then results in precedents being set that can then be successfully exploited by us all.

Who better to set a precedent than a respected Government Cabinet Minister who has taken his turn at the daily briefing rostrum and preached the virtues of the Government’s stay at home policy. Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary has made a 150 mile trip to his second home to be with his family. Then made a 40 mile trip to his parents’ home to deliver essentials but did not go in. His defence was that this was allowed within the rules.

There we are, the precedent has been set, even though the Government Instruction is “you should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home” “The only exception is if they need help, such as essentials, shopping or medication dropped off”

It now appears that travelling a hundred odd miles to do this is within the rules.

For the record, I won’t be travelling 210 miles this weekend during lock down, my moral compass won’t allow it but there are those out there who will see this as a green light to do what they want to do and at the expense of everybody else who are hunkering down and playing by the rules, we would all like to see our family over Easter, wouldn’t we!

Registered

Sitting in your car all day is not good for your fitness. You need healthy lungs in case you contract Coronavirus. Stopping every two hours on a long trip is recommended. Best to exercise away from the crowds in your local park, so whilst driving back from the theoretical trip to your parents why not stop at that deserted beach for a walk?
In Herefordshire there were only 81 cases of Covid-19 to date. Why should a cabinet minister start a cluster by coming from the epicenter of the outbreak? Keep that disease where it belongs and 'Gerroff MOY land"

Switch to Octopus for innovative, equitable and green tariffs - Go for 4 hours low cost charging at 5p/kWh or Agile for a pure time of use tariff. £50 credit with this link - Split £100 | Octopus Energy

Registered

The fetid air at a number more than 9 and less than 11 does seem to be a breeding ground indeedy😗all the more reason why the frequenters need their country air. Where is Emily I say to call this out. Where are the roy££ commentators too while we are on the subject.

I needed to deliver food to my elderly relatives, so I added their address to my Sainsbury's account and without any fuss the delivery slots were opened up. This was sensible and lawful because HM Gov has informed Sainsbury's of vulnerable addresses.

Surely the minister could ask his PA to do that, so that he can spend his time working from home like the rest of us?!

"We often co-opt our prefrontal cortex to rationalise choices that were actually driven by our emotions"
“What am I not seeing?" ...“What else is true?” ... “What is my responsibility in this situation?”

Switch to Octopus for innovative, equitable and green tariffs - Go for 4 hours low cost charging at 5p/kWh or Agile for a pure time of use tariff. £50 credit with this link - Split £100 | Octopus Energy

Registered

In no way seeking to undermine your post, but I'd be amazed if this is the case as the privacy implications are huge. Has every food retailer been given the address of every vulnerable person and been allowed to make this available to anyone online? So for example, if I added your Parents address to my (say) Tesco account would it likewise indicate to me their status? Or did your parents opt for certain stores (one only shops at Waitrose, one wouldn't be seen dead with an Iceland van outside the house - I'd have to immediately inform all of the neighbours that Iceland had made a mistake), or even only link it to your account based on email address?
This sounds potentially like about the largest ever data breach.
Enough for now, I've just identified some vulnerable people to scam ....

Switch to Octopus for innovative, equitable and green tariffs - Go for 4 hours low cost charging at 5p/kWh or Agile for a pure time of use tariff. £50 credit with this link - Split £100 | Octopus Energy

Registered

Who the third parties are, how it will be used, and how it might be exposed all should be defined in the associated Privacy Statements along with what it means. Exposing data as alleged would need to be specifically stated and the risks (of me and worse using it as a source of data for scams) pointed out.

Switch to Octopus for innovative, equitable and green tariffs - Go for 4 hours low cost charging at 5p/kWh or Agile for a pure time of use tariff. £50 credit with this link - Split £100 | Octopus Energy

The second picture is just to show "How nice it is to be by the sea side" that's why crabs move in a sideways manner.

Okay I'll come clean, I was a wee bit disingenuous posting the picture of the camper vans.

Ironically, it was the police that put the campervans there, they are under curfew with orders not to move or go anywhere for the duration. In doing so the police and Hampshire Council who played a part in it as well, have hung these poor people out to dry. Casual visitors taking their exercise down there (Hill Head) jump to the obvious conclusion that they are transgressors ignoring lock down rules. This has resulted in these people being subjected to abuse, ridicule, threats of violence and criminal damage to their property.

There history is that they have sold up their properties in the UK, bought camper vans and spend most of the year touring Europe. They were leaving the UK when the COVID19 outbreak firmed up and were on the Portsmouth to Cherbourg ferry and the French literally closed the border and denied them permission to land in France. They had to come back to the UK on the ferry and were stranded at the Portsmouth ferry port. The Authorities didn't know what to do with then, so stuck them by the sea at Hill Head by the nature reserve.

They are smashing friendly people and just wish that the authorities would put up a sign to explain to the local community who they are and why they are there

I occasionally ride my bike down that way for my exercise and have been chatting with them while maintaining social
distance of course.

Switch to Octopus for innovative, equitable and green tariffs - Go for 4 hours low cost charging at 5p/kWh or Agile for a pure time of use tariff. £50 credit with this link - Split £100 | Octopus Energy

Registered

Slight deviation, although lugging the box of essential shopping had been thought of some weeks ago to allow an associate (front line NHS) who works away from home during week and acts as carer for the person they lodge with, to travel 75 miles to check on the security of their own house.
Anyway, although a fairly high burglary area and central heating still set for winter, they chose not to travel, especially as motorways were being monitored (so that works).
Anyway again, I had an important hospital appointment with a route directly passing the subject property. As my driver had not been allowed into the hospital, a hydraulic emergency was declared on the way home and,so I would argue, a valid excuse for using the loo in an empty house presented itself and was suitably resolved.
Central heating and all unecessary electrical devices were switched off and a large quantity of mail was collected.
In the circumstances I was authorised to open said letters and low and behold there was a Bus Lane Violation Penalty Notice, already timed out for lower fine and days from formal action. In any case they disputed that there were any reasonably visible signs otherwise they wouldn't have driven in a bus lane. Normally we would check the signage before deciding on appealing or paying up at cheapest option. Of course we are legally prohibited from obtaining any evidence to defend the ticket and had been legally prevented from getting the notice in any decent time frame.

This must be repeated throughout the country, any observations (apart from don't drive in bus lanes)?

Registered

In no way seeking to undermine your post, but I'd be amazed if this is the case as the privacy implications are huge. Has every food retailer been given the address of every vulnerable person and been allowed to make this available to anyone online? So for example, if I added your Parents address to my (say) Tesco account would it likewise indicate to me their status? Or did your parents opt for certain stores (one only shops at Waitrose, one wouldn't be seen dead with an Iceland van outside the house - I'd have to immediately inform all of the neighbours that Iceland had made a mistake), or even only link it to your account based on email address?
This sounds potentially like about the largest ever data breach.
Enough for now, I've just identified some vulnerable people to scam ....

My understanding is that HM Gov is working with retailers to inform them of who is vulnerable so that deliveries can be prioritised. It may be unverifiable without concluding some invasive investigatory journalism, but it appears to me possible to create alternative delivery addresses in an account and identify vulnerable neighbours.

My parents had no food, had no history with deliveries, and called on me because retailers were not allowing new account creation.

"We often co-opt our prefrontal cortex to rationalise choices that were actually driven by our emotions"
“What am I not seeing?" ...“What else is true?” ... “What is my responsibility in this situation?”

Registered

Who the third parties are, how it will be used, and how it might be exposed all should be defined in the associated Privacy Statements along with what it means. Exposing data as alleged would need to be specifically stated and the risks (of me and worse using it as a source of data for scams) pointed out.

Privacy statements are not a thing, privacy notices and privacy policies are and are not required under certain circumstances, if it is some form of enumeration to determine vulnerable status this would be on the data processor (supermarket), there would also need to be a case to show harm etc, if more than one person lived at an address it would also not be considered personally identifiable information. I would also be very surprised to see any action taken by the ICO. I would assume the government would be using vital interest rather than consent which has much more requirements under GDPR.

Whilst there is quiet but growing voice that the Coronavirus lockdown was a mistaken instruction, the level of fear generated by that move is looking to gridlock the unlocking of the lockdown.
So this slow start to unlock could last far longer than any of us ever have imagined.
Will it take an...

Ok, unfortunates on zero hours contracts and the unempolyed have very little chance of work in the forseeable future, young people at schools / Colleges / Universities are no longer receiving an education and hence being kept busy, lots are required to quarantine in an unregulated way...